Quotes About Transience

Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.

As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.

While the shoots are still uncut, they dry up quicker than grass.

If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ëI never saw you.í

They sweep by like boats of papyrus, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

Are Your days like those of a mortal, or Your years like those of a man,

Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?

Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?

So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.

Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil,

As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,

But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place,

You forever overpower him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away.

he will dwell in ruined cities, in abandoned houses destined to become rubble.

He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure. His possessions will not overspread the land.

and say to corruption, ëYou are my father,í and to the worm, ëMy mother,í or ëMy sister,í

Though his arrogance reaches the heavens, and his head touches the clouds,

he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who had seen him will ask, ëWhere is he?í

He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.